Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Today you are four months old. This month has gone by in the blink of an eye. I packed away all of your 0-3 month clothes, and pulled out all of the bigger clothes. It's getting cold outside, so you are wearing sweaters and sweatshirts and sweatpants in the mornings and evenings. You look kind of funny all bundled up and squished into the baby carrier, but I get a lot of giggles at your expense.

You are very nosy, and need to know what is going on all the time. Whenever we go out, you watch other people, especially kids, to see what everyone is doing. Sometime it is hard to get you to eat because you are craning your neck to see something. You like to watch people, and you like to look at things that are red. Before, you would grab toys and things that were given to you, or put in front of you, but now you grab anything that is in grabbing distance. This includes hair, glasses, and of course, toys. You prefer the hard teething toys to soft stuffed animals, and everything goes in your mouth. You bat at your toys in the exersaucer and on your carseat to make them spin, and your coordination is getting better every day.

You found your thumb, and realized that while your fist may not fit in your mouth, by golly, that thumb is the perfect size! I think that you are a lefty, like me, because you reach with your left hand.

All of my bragging and boasting about your sleeping habits has come back to bite me in my sleep-deprived a... ear. This month we decided to put you in a Halo blanket instead of your Swaddle-me, and you decided that everyone needs to be awake at 12am. And at 4am.

You are still not sleeping in your crib, but we put you in there sometimes to play with your toys. And you use the slats of the crib to turn in circles, and you roll over (for real this time!) You like to roll over when nobody is watching, but we come back in the room and you are on your tummy when we left you on your back. Your father even set up a hidden video camera so that we could see you, but you must have known he was up to something because you wouldn't do it. We do, however, have about 30 minutes of exciting tape of you laying in your crib eating your bib.

Your Grandma came all the way from Illinois to spend last weekend with you. You were really good, smiling all the time and not spitting up on her once. You already know who buys the presents.

Your dad and I opened up a college account for you this month, and you're well on your way to that PhD from Yale. Or you know, wherever you decide to go. I think that part of being a parent is the desire for your children to do better, to have better than you, and to make all of their dreams come true and have them want for nothing. I know, now, that life consists of a general happiness or contentment, with bright and shining moments of pure, unadulterated joy. It is those moments of joy that make life worth living. You and your father and a lot of other people have brought so much joy into my life, and I can only hope that I do the same for you. That is, until you're a teenager, and it's all downhill from there, because you may not leave the house wearing that and get off the phone now, and then it's my job to make your life as horrible and embarrassing as I can. But for now, you are just my little baby, and you're always going to be my beautiful little baby, my precious little baby that I love so very much.